


Her Legacy

by BoredomBeckons



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Joker (2019)
Genre: Dark Harleen Quinzel, Mind Manipulation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25915657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoredomBeckons/pseuds/BoredomBeckons
Summary: He was all over the news. Everyone was talking about him. The clown in the purple suit. Crazier than crazy. No name, no backstory, no motive that anyone could tell. And he was hers. Her prize patient. He was going to be her crowning achievement. She would write books about this man.
Relationships: Joker (DCU)/Harleen Quinzel
Kudos: 8





	Her Legacy

She had been too idealistic when they first brought him into Arkham. Harley was self-aware enough to admit that now.

Getting a post there had been a dream come true. A chance to put her doctorate to good use, and take a look into the minds of all the most interesting and twisted criminals in the world. So many promising candidates had been dragged thrashing through those double doors, wrapped up in straight-jackets like presents at Christmas, ready to be unravelled.

The Penguin. The Riddler. The Mad Hatter. Poison Ivy.

All of them fascinating.

All of them unique.

All of them someone else's patient.

Then finally, he had come. Hand delivered by The Bat himself.

He was all over the news. Everyone was talking about him. The clown in the purple suit.

Crazier than crazy. No name, no backstory, no motive that anyone could tell.

And he was hers. Her prize patient.

He was going to be her crowning achievement.

She would write books about this man.

She would be the Doctor who cracked The Joker.

The one who learned what made him tick.

It took far less effort than she was expecting. That was the first disappointment.

Took barely any time or skill to get under that pale pasty makeup to the man beneath the clown.

He was supposed to be interesting. The most interesting villain in the world. A true madman. A criminal genius.

What did she get instead? A sad simpering little failed comedian with mommy issues and delusions of grandeur. Just an ordinary, boring, run of the mill sociopath of below average intelligence.

Heck, with the right medication and some cognitive therapy he could be a functioning member of society again. He even seemed to want that. Wanted to be cured. To be sane.

It was unacceptable.

How dare he do this to her?

How dare he disappoint her like this.

After all she had done for him.

She wouldn't allow it. She had invested too much of herself into this clown for him to be reduced to just another half-baked serial killer with a cheesy gimmick. One who was giving up no less. He was prepared to confess to his crimes and go to a normal prison, with normal criminals. Ready to be rehabilitated and forgotten.

It was a travesty.

He was supposed to be great!

She needed him to be great. The greatest villain of all time.

Clearly, he wasn't going to manage that by himself. Even when he was trying to be the Joker the idiot couldn't find his way to a decent punchline with a compass and a map.

She would help.

She would make him a legend. The world would remember the name Joker.

It didn't even matter that she was throwing away her career. If anything, it added a beautiful flare to things. He wouldn't be just a crazy genius. He would be 'The Crazy Genius' the one who was so far off his rocker that he drove his own therapist insane whilst she was treating him, recruiting her to his crusade.

Harley could push that narrative. She could stand in the shadows and play this clown like a puppet, make him into a villain worthy of Dr Harleen Quinzel.

And when the time was right, she would kill him off. Cut him from the world in a blaze of fire and glory that would be talked about for years to come, his reputation (The one she built for him) forever immortalised.

No one but her would ever know the truth of the Joker.

He would be her legacy.


End file.
